La Mesa parts ways with PBID consultant

LA MESA  The La Mesa City Council heard a status report on Tuesday from members of its Property Based Improvement District formation committee on the latest revisions to its plan for the downtown village, which was first explored in 2007.

After committee members Lynn McRae and Bill Rattan gave the update, which included information about several zoning changes and the elimination of houses of worship and La Mesa-Spring Valley School District property from the proposed special tax district, the council voted 4-1 to to stop funding PBID consultant Ed Henning.

Henning, whose contract was for $28,000 to help move the self-imposed taxation plan along, will not get the final $6,500 in his contract; that money will go into the city's parking fund.

Ed Henning and Associates was hired October 2009 to assist property and business owners to understand the financing mechanisms that may be available to them for developing a maintenance district. La Mesa hired Henning to help forge "a lasting public-private partnership that will revitalize the Downtown Village and keep it attractive and vibrant well into the future," the city's website notes.

The city of La Mesa has committed to invest up to $5 million in a major rejuvenation of the downtown area — including lighting, parking, sidewalk fixes and redesigned landscaping.

An overhaul of the downtown area's main street of La Mesa Boulevard is planned to start in January. A streetscape project has been in the works since March 2008 when the City Council authorized the allocation of $300,000 from the Downtown Parking Fund to prepare the Downtown Village Streetscape Improvement Program to revitalize public infrastructure in the downtown area.

The PBID, as originally proposed, encompassed 133 property owners with 182 parcels in three zoned areas. It has dwindled to 80 parcels in one zone.

"He doesn't get this money unless he gets work, so if we don't need it done, then his contract's done," Councilman Ernie Ewin said after the meeting regarding the Henning contract.

"Some people are saying that if we don't pass the PBID, the streetscape project won't happen. That's just not true. We're going to do the streetscape whether the PBID passes or not. The council has a shortage of patience, we want to keep moving ahead. We've been waiting and waiting to hear (from the PBID committee) but meanwhile we've got a streetscape that's moving ahead."